Window With A View by RaymondJohn

[the smart lady]

this is nice story i hope u enjoy it

Window With A View by RaymondJohn

There she is, ten-year-old Mikey Wallace thought, same as ever.

Mikey and his pal, Irving, had passed it every day they went to school for the past three years. They couldn't avoid it, even if they wanted to. There was something darkly enticing about it. Scary, but exciting.

Today the sun shone bright. Maybe he could get a better look before the witchy neighbor drove him away. But how?

For once, luck was with him. A sudden gust of wind grabbed his stocking cap and blew it up in the yard. He galloped after it.

"Whatcha doing?" Irving shouted in a whisper. "You know you're going to get into trouble."

"Knock it off, willya? I'm just chasing my cap?"

"Like fun. That mean ol' lady's gonna catch you again for sure."

"Baloney," Mikey said, but just to be sure he took a quick look at the porch in the house next door. Whoever the witch was, she would show up there. She always seemed to.

About to pick up his cap, Mikey had a brainstorm. Grinning slyly, he kicked it closer to his destination. Just a few more feet and the witch wouldn't be able to see him when he ducked down next to the window.

The underground house always seemed to be a sort of hidden treasure cave to him, and the window, a kind of a door. He could already see the sun's reflection off the window. It always seemed so bright, even though the rest of the building was creepy. Why would someone want to live in a basement, he wondered.

It had a flat roof and shingles, like an ordinary house, but everything was level to the ground except for the raised eave and window. It also had a chimney, but he had never seen any smoke come out of it, even when it was ten below.

"Mikey..."

"Shut up, willya? You're gonna attract attention, and I'm almost there."

His feet barely carried him forward. Though the ground was no longer covered with snow, the earth was still frozen and slippery. His overshoes scuffed against the icy grass as he tried to keep his balance.

Tired of slipping, Mikey dropped to his knees. He had forgotten his mittens, and the palms and insides of his fingers quickly chilled as he crawled forward.

Then he was there. Right in front of the window.

His heart beat faster as he shielded his eyes and peered in.

The first thing he saw was his own shadow on a white sheet below. He saw many other sheets. Everything inside seemed to be covered with them. But he also could see a table. And a rocking horse. He couldn't make out the objects on the table, but there seemed to be quite a few things. Then he noticed something next to the table. Something with dark stains.

"Ai!" he cried out as he felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked up and stared into the long gray face of the witch, who stood over him wearing a ragged black coat and a kerchief on her head. Grabbing him by the ear, she croaked, "Get away from here. It's dangerous."

Ear burning, Mikey fought off his embarrassment and got to his feet. She marched him to the sidewalk where Irving stood, looking frightened.

"I've seen you two here before and I don't want to have to tell you again. Stay away from that house. There's nothing here for you, and it's dangerous. Years ago, one of the children from your school tried to break in. Someone heard him screaming and called the police. They found him dead on the floor beneath the window when they arrived."

Mikey found his voice, "Aw, you're just trying to scare us."

She gave his ear an angry twist. "I'm telling you the truth. Now run along to school. And don't come back here anymore. The next time I see you by this house, I'm calling the police. And don't you forget it..."

Her voice was angry, but Mikey thought he detected something else. Like she was scared or something.

Wide-eyed, Irving grabbed Mikey's hand. "C'mon. Let's get outta here. We'll be tardy."

They tore off. Just as they crossed the street to the schoolyard, the first bell rang. With only three minutes to get to the opposite end of the building, they were in the hallway when the second bell rang. Throwing each other worried looks, they opened the door to the classroom. Mrs. Patch glared at them. "You're tardy. Go sit in the cloakroom until I call you in."

Heads hanging low, they opened the door and stepped in. The room was hot and smelled like old inner tubes.

"I shoulda left you there and gone to class," Irving groused. "My Mom's not going to like this."

"Quit griping," Mikey said. "You should have come with me. It was really somethin'."

Irving's face lit up. "Yeah? What did you see?"

"Well, everything was in the dark, but I could see what looked like a lot of furniture covered with sheets."

"So what," Irving said with a sneer. "Who cares about ole furniture?"

"That's not what I'm talking about. There was a table with a bunch of stuff on it. I couldn't tell what it was, but next to it there was this real big trunk. Dad has one up in the attic, but it isn't as big. It had a lock on both ends and it looked like it had tar all over it."

Irving stopped pulling on his boot and looked at Mikey. "Really? What do you suppose is in it?"

"I don't know. Treasure, probably. I sure'd like to find out."

Irving put his foot against the heel of his boot and pushed with the toe of the other. The stubborn boot flew off, taking his shoe with it. "You heard what that old lady said. She's gonna call the cops if she ever sees us again."

Mikey smiled evilly. "What if she don't see us?"

"What dya mean?"

"We can come back at night. There isn't much of a moon, and another day or so it'll be completely dark at night."

Irving shook his head. "Don't be stupid. Our parents won't let us go out at night."

"No. But tomorrow's Friday. We can pretend we're staying at each other's house. That way they'll never find out."

"Well, maybe. But even if we got away with it, the old lady will see us for sure."

"Not if we come down the alley behind it. It's a lot closer, too."

Irving shook his head. "I don't know if that's a very good idea. I really don't like the place. It scares me."

"Me too, but I'm not chicken."

"I'm not either," Irving said with a glare. "There's just some things I don't want to do." He stopped. Then looking at Mikey, his eyes lit up. "How we gonna see?"

"I'll get the flashlight out of our car. Dad'll never notice."

Conversation ended with Mrs. Patch opening the cloakroom door. "Come into the classroom. We have reading."


Getting the flashlight was easy. Dad's 'thirty-seven Chevy was sitting outside the garage when Mikey got home. The doors were locked, but all he had to do was ask his mother for the extra set of keys so he could get his baseball mitt. She didn't suspect a thing. As expected, the flashlight was in the car's cubby hole. The mitt was lying in the backseat on top of the car's blanket.

Gathering up the flashlight, he jammed it under his belt and covered it with his shirt and ran back to the house. Mother, who was sitting in the living room crocheting, barely noticed when he laid the keys on the dining room table and dashed up the stairs.

"Thanks, Ma."

Halfway up he stopped short when he felt the flashlight pull free and drop down his pantsleg. It banged against the wooden step, rolled off and banged against the next one down.

"What was that?" mother asked.

OH NO. "Nothing. I just dropped my mitt."

"It didn't sound like a mitt to me. What else are you bringing upstairs?"

"Nothing. Really."

Mikey's heart jumped when she appeared at the bottom of the stairs. "You're not lying to me, are you?"

He eyed the flashlight lying in the middle of the step down. "Nah. Why would I lie?"

"I don't know."

With that she started up the stairs.

"What's the matter, Mom?" Mikey asked, making an effort not to sound worried.

"I have to use the bathroom."

Thump, thump, thump went Mikey's heartbeat in his throat. He really got scared when she caught sight of the flashlight. "What's that doing here?"

"I...I lost my Lone Ranger Atomic Bomb ring in the closet. It fell off my finger when I was looking in it and I wanted to find it."

At least that sounded good. He had sent a dime and a boxtop to the Wheaties address for the ring. A little bomb. When you pulled the red plastic tail off and peered into it in the dark, you actually could see little stars flash inside of it. But you had to have complete dark.

"That's fine, but why did you lie to me?"

"I don't know. I was afraid you wouldn't like it if you knew I took the flashlight out of the car."

Mom's bright red lips pursed as she gave him a stern look. "I wouldn't have cared. What I don't like is your lying to me. Tell me why you didn't want me to know."

Gulp. "I just got some new comics and I wanted to read them under the covers tonight."

"I see," she said, holding out her hand. "Give me the flashlight."

Mikey handed it to her, groaning in his mind. I sure hope Irving can get one.

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Thank U very much

nice story